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The margins are just too low on these, hell a decent copy writer is going to cost you half of that if not more. If it needs to have a polished look add a graphi
by kls 16y ago
The margins are just too low on these, hell a decent copy writer is going to cost you half of that if not more. If it needs to have a polished look add a graphics person to that. And that's just to get all of the creative done. I just don't see how on the thin margin of $200 to $500 it can be done. Even with offshore labor the onshore management would eat it up to the point that it would not have a value proposition worth perusing. With canned text, stock images, and a stock template, sure it could be done. But these people never look for a just add water site. They want the "make it like x" twitter, Facebook whoever they want to knock off that week.
I have a friend who owns a vending operation and I promised to sit down with him and show him how to design his own site with GoDaddy's tools and how to use Ad Words to market his service online. He was actually surprised at how easy it was to do. Now he wont win any design awards but for his market something that disseminates some simple info is all he needs. $200 is really a DIY budget and that is all I could really see that someone could do to service this market. It took me 3hr to teach him how to handle it himself. And if someone where instructing people how to do it themselves with these simple site builders they could make a decent freelancing salary. I just don't see a product here that could do better than the existing watered down site builders. Without professional a copywriter and graphic design you will get the same results, offshoring copywriting seems like a bad idea and offshoring graphics requires some management oversight. Until these can be automated I dont see the margins.
The reality is $200 barely covers 2hrs labor for a good mechanic. Developers require a lot more knowledge and skills than mechanics. For some reason people get the idea that this should not be the case but $200 for professional services set's up unrealistic expectations.
- phranc 16y ago> Developers require a lot more knowledge and skills than mechanics Oh? Care to elaborate on this statement or stop while you're ahead.
- lylejohnson 16y agoWas thinking the same thing, and it also reminded me of a scene from "Seinfeld": Jerry: So, Puddy, this is a pretty good move for you, huh? No more "grease monkey". David Puddy: I don't much care for that term. Jerry: Oh. Sorry, I didn't know... David Puddy: No, I don't know too many monkeys who could take apart a fuel injector.
- kls 16y agoYes I can, my grandfather, my father and myself (in my early life) where all Aircraft Mechanics. I am still a motor-sports mechanic (hobbyist for off-road motor-sports team) and restore old Jeeps, Bronco's and Scouts. From Frame to finish. I can tell you emphatically that software development is more complex than Mechanics. Further, I do hobbies work in the automotive electronics space and develop software that uses CAN, OBDII and hack ECU's. The development environments and list of technologies required are far more spare because it is an fairly heterogeneous environment but I did not say anything about automotive programming (though I do believe that it is less complex than web, mainly because it is not cluttered by technology soup) I was speaking specifically about pull a part off, replace it, run a diagnostic machine on it mechanic. I specifically chose mechanic because it is a trade I know a lot about given that it is the family business.
- bdclimber14 16y agoFirst of all, this market would never hire a copy writer. They would throw some of their own words together. Hell, I don't even think this market knows what copy writing is. You illustrated an excellent point though: It took 3 hours to teach someone how to use a "teach yourself" product. Amazing!
- kls 16y agoMy point was this request always comes with, I want professional services on a shoestring. They want you to build Facebook for $500. Facebook required a professional graphics team and a professional marketing team that has copywriters. That is before you ever get to code. My point is they expect Champagne on a beer budget.
- slantyyz 16y agoI would go even further and say, they're expecting Cristal for the price of tap water.
- petervandijck 16y agoI wouldn't be surprised at all if Facebook never had copywriters. You live in a stratified branding world my friend.
- GFischer 16y agoSorry to disappoint you, but here in the 3rd world, "$200 for professional services sets up unrealistic expectations." well... for U$ 100 an hour you can get world-class services here in Uruguay. I get paid U$ 8/hour (I'm not that bad a developer, but probably below average and nowhere near world-class). For comparison, a good mechanic costs U$ 20/hour. There are several companies here that thrive on the "too-low-margin-for-the-US" market, I should set up one too...
- kls 16y agoOnce the American manager and sales team eats up $150 of that then you have $50 for at least 3 days work. Unless you are planning on having no US sales presence.
- GFischer 16y agoYep that's too little even for us. And your point is that the kind of "I need a website for U$ 200" don't know how to get to rentacoder or equivalent. I wonder if they get to craigslist, or if you could have a high enough volume with a very small US presence. One of my first jobs was for a small company that outsourced, it had an US phone, an Uruguay-based sales rep that spoke very good american-accent English.. maybe that's enough for the sales leads?
- kls 16y agoI just don't see it, I could be wrong it happens more than I would like. But I don't see how you can have a US presence. If someone can figure out that part they will have a big piece of the puzzle solved.